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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27194462">Find Me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/AeonTheDimensionalGirl/pseuds/AeonTheDimensionalGirl'>AeonTheDimensionalGirl</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>I’ve Got You (You’re Safe Now) [25]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Merlin (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angry Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Angst with a Happy Ending, Arthur Knows About Merlin's Magic (Merlin), BAMF Merlin (Merlin), Canon Era, Deviates From Canon, Escape, Fluffy Ending, Hurt Merlin (Merlin), Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapped Merlin (Merlin), M/M, Merlin is So Done (Merlin), Prince Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Protective Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Secret Relationship, Serious Injuries, Whumptober 2020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:40:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,139</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27194462</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/AeonTheDimensionalGirl/pseuds/AeonTheDimensionalGirl</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>He’s managed to escape his captors, yes. Now the problem lay in not dying as he tried to make it back home.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Merlin/Arthur, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon, Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>I’ve Got You (You’re Safe Now) [25]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1939345</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>796</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Find Me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><b>PROMPT No 25. I THINK I’LL JUST COLLAPSE RIGHT HERE, THANKS</b><br/><b>Disorientation</b> | <b>Blurred Vision</b> | Ringing Ears</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Merlin hates being kidnapped with a burning passion.</p><p>Whether if it’s to try to make him spill Camelot’s secrets or to force someone to come rescue him and make it an ambush, Merlin hates them.</p><p>He hates them even more if his kidnappers are smart, and unfortunately these ones have been so; as a precaution, they had saddled the warlock with cold iron manacles.</p><p>Funny enough, because they didn’t know he had magic, it was because they didn’t want to take any chances with their victim, as one of them oh so kindly explained while nearly twisting his arms to place the chains.</p><p>Merlin reluctantly had to give them points for that, alongside taking him via drugged rag while he was out collecting herbs and taking him to an abandoned house that was half wood, half stone.</p><p>“So-” he began to say to the three men standing in front of him with a bored tone while forcing his breathing to be calm in order to mask the pain around his wrists, “Of what do I owe the pleasure of this lovely kidnapping?”</p><p>The men stayed strangely silent, just looking at him.</p><p>“Random stranger abduction? The need to feel something by hurting someone? Revenge even if I’m quite sure I’ve never seen you before? Did someone pay you?” Merlin guessed, tilting his head, “Or is this just for me to be bait?”</p><p>One of the men sneered at him before punching his face.</p><p>The back of Merlin’s head made contact with stone at the same time he felt pain explode on his nose area.</p><p>Huh, one pain numbing another.</p><p>He’ll have to ask Gaius about that one.</p><p>Groaning, Merlin tried to ignore how he could feel blood starting to dribble onto his neck and off his nostril, his vision blurring.</p><p>“I- I see you’re well versed in the language of physical abuse” the raven muttered, trying to blink some focus onto his sight, “So, did I guess correct-?”</p><p>He yelped as a different man lifted him up by his tunic and slammed him to the wall, making the edges of his vision go dark and the room to spin.</p><p>“Oh no, pretty one” the man’s voice sounded like an echo, and Merlin tried to fight against the throbbing on his head to catch the words, “You’re here so we can play with Prince Arthur’s little toy”</p><p>Despite the pain, the warlock stilled, feeling himself begin to panic.</p><p>Oh gods-</p><p>They couldn’t know-</p><p>The couldn’t possibly mean-</p><p>“T-Toy?” Merlin croaked with practiced confusion.</p><p>The third man punched him in the stomach while the thug who been holding him let go. Merlin curled onto himself in pain, gritting his teeth as he felt his wrists burn thanks to the cold iron and the throbbing ache on his new injuries.</p><p>“Come now boy-” kidnapper number one said with an added tut while thug number two gripped him by the hair, “We know you’re a special one to the Prince”</p><p>“I’m j-just his s-servant” Merlin replied, biting the inside of his cheek of avoid crying out when the hair pulling became harder, “N-Nothing more”</p><p>“We’ve seen something different, pretty boy” the third man sneered, “You and the Prince pass time together for every single moment-”</p><p>“Because I work for him-”</p><p>“And you do like to smooch him in the forest, where you’re confident no one will see ya”</p><p>That shut Merlin up, his eyes widening in horror.</p><p>“Yeah, we saw you both a little while ago” the second man laughed, “Had ya lying on the ground, where he gave ya pretty cloth for your throat-”</p><p>Which Merlin just realized he couldn’t feel around his neck.</p><p>Breathing heavily and with difficulty against the clogged blood on his nose, he looked down-</p><p>“You won’t find it” the third man said with a smirk, “We did need something for the little Prince to know his little whore had been taken”</p><p>Ah, so this kidnapping <em>was</em> different.</p><p>This was to personally hurt Arthur.</p><p>And that was enough to make Merlin forget about his anxiety over his relationship with the Crown Prince being revealed and be replaced with simmering anger.</p><p>Snarling, the raven tried to lunge at them, but was held on tightly by the hand on his hair, while another one closed on his neck-</p><p>So Merlin spat at them, watching with satisfaction how bloody spit fell upon their faces-</p><p>And gasped when his stomach received another punch, followed by getting dropped back onto the ground-</p><p>Only for his body to begin getting kicked with viciousness, pain exploding all around him anew, his vision going all black-</p><p>When Merlin came onto himself again, he found his body aching, and blood flowing freely on a new open cut on his forehead while his wrists felt like they were on fire, his magic a scared buzz on his skin.</p><p>It took him a while to gather his bearings, feeling horribly disoriented-</p><p>But when he blinked against the new haziness in his eyes, he could see his kidnappers were staring down at him again, looking smug at their handwork.</p><p>“Think Prince Arthur will like how we changed his little whore’s appearance?” the first man asked while the other two laughed.</p><p>“You w-won’t get aw-away with this” the warlock managed to hiss, feeling his chained magic seethe inside him, trying to find a way to break free, “Let m-me go”</p><p>The men laughed with cruelty.</p><p>“You’re helpless, pretty one” the first thugs said, “You’re badly injured and are nicely chained. You’ll never escape”</p><p>“We’ll let you go when there is no more blood pouring out of you, no more breath in your lungs, and that feeble little heart of yours no longer beats with life” the other thug replied with a dark smile that made the raven’s skin crawl.</p><p>“We will hide in the shadows and watch as your Prince finds your lifeless corpse” another boasted with mirth, “And then we shall attack him, beat him up as we explain how much you screamed and cried for ‘im”</p><p>Merlin glared.</p><p>“Let me guess” he whispered, clutching his fists as he began to feel his magic trying to break through the cold iron, “Then you’ll kill him too”</p><p>The men actually clapped with enthusiasm.</p><p>“Smart one!” number three exclaimed.</p><p>He had to get out of here-</p><p>The warlock closed his eyes, trying to focus on his magic despite the pain on his head.</p><p><em>‘Let me out’</em>, it seemed to be saying, <em>‘Let me out’</em></p><p>In a moment, the raven thought to himself.</p><p>“You won’t get away with it” Merlin repeated in a cold voice, hiding a smirk with a painful wince as he felt the manacles try to burn his angry magic away and made his whole body throb, “Do you want to know why?”</p><p>The men looked at him with amusement.</p><p>“Humor us”</p><p>“Because if you want to hurt Arthur Pendragon” the warlock began to say at the same time the cold iron chains made a broken clink, “You’ll have to get through me”</p><p>He smirked, taking pleasure in how the men seemed to pale for a moment.</p><p>
  <em>“Wáce ierlic”</em>
</p><p>They went flying to the other side of the room, the warlock’s rage and held back sorcery just bringing a more brutal force to the incantation as the slammed against stone-</p><p>And stayed motionless.</p><p>Feeling his body tremble against the amount of energy and the rush of adrenaline, Merlin got up, trying to ignore his shallow breathing and how lightheaded he suddenly felt-</p><p>The small shock of pain on his wrists momentarily distracted him as he began walking to the door, and the raven swore loudly.</p><p>The fucking cold iron manacles had been merely reduced to individual cuffs, keeping his arms free but his magic was back to being painfully reigned in.</p><p>Thankfully though, the ache wasn’t so bad.</p><p>… Or perhaps that was just the adrenaline talking.</p><p>Either way, Merlin decided to focus with one problem at a time, like getting out of wherever the fuck he’d been taken by his captors and try to blink some focus onto his foggy eye sight-</p><p>And just when he found an entrance with the pale moonlight filtering through, the warlock felt a presence behind him-</p><p>And narrowly avoided getting sliced by another man wielding a dagger.</p><p>“Fuck” Merlin said, internally screaming.</p><p>Since when there was a forth one?!</p><p>“Not the last words I was hoping to hear from you” the man admitted with bemusement before throwing himself at the raven, tackling him to the ground.</p><p>Merlin was honestly tired of having his body be thrown to hard stone surfaces.</p><p>He lay there, struggling to shake the man off him and trying to fight the blurry vision that had taken over his eyes.</p><p>Was it sweat?</p><p>Or tears?</p><p>Perhaps it was blood, given how the man grabbed Merlin by the head and brought it back with slam to the ground, taking the breath out of his lungs as everything went white for a moment-</p><p>A slice to his side brought him back, and Merlin watched through half open eyes how the man raised his blade again, ready to strike him on the chest-</p><p>Merlin screamed.</p><p>He felt his magic rise again against the cold iron, bursting with a rough wave that made his new attacker convulse before dropping next to the heaving warlock.</p><p>Shaking, Merlin hurriedly rose to his feet, nearly falling unto his face when he finally made it to the entrance, stumbling as he felt his locked up magic hiss and buzz against their repressors.</p><p>Gulping, the raven tried to take a deep breath, to just convince himself that the worst was over, he was out-</p><p>But the warlock can feel his body aching with pain, he can sense the blood falling and dripping on his face and side; if he doesn’t find at least a populated place in half a candle mark, he ran the risk of succumbing to the throbbing of his injuries as the adrenaline left him.</p><p>Merlin forced himself to move, towards where he was sure Camelot was.</p><hr/><p>The thickness of the tress and the dark makes Merlin stumble through the forest, resting occasionally on tree trunks and boulders to try and take some small breather; and to make things worse the pain on his skull and the blood on his face doesn’t help either with his attempts to find home.</p><p>Some part of himself knows that he’s heavily disoriented by the multiple assaults to his head, and the passage of time that makes the adrenaline begin to disappear is not helping at all-</p><p>Gasping and heaving, Merlin rests his body against a boulder, trying to catch his breath, placing his hand onto the stone as he tries to put better pressure onto his injured side-</p><p>And makes a double take.</p><p>Hadn’t he already passed that boulder?</p><p>Merlin was pretty sure he had, it even barred a fresh bloody handprint like his own.</p><p>Or maybe he just left it and couldn’t remember?</p><p>Swallowing and trying to ignore his rising panic, Merlin pushes himself off the rock and begins his journey anew.</p><p>Internally, the warlock prays that Arthur is looking for him, that he found the kidnappers message and is around these woods trying to find him-</p><p>He really wants to be in his lover’s arms, feeling safe and sound, painless.</p><p>Merlin’s vision was starting to be more disoriented and his steps blurry-</p><p>Or was it backwards?</p><p>Feet disoriented and eyes blurry?</p><p>Everything was so unfocused, where was he?</p><p>The adrenaline was leaving him-</p><p>Merlin collapsed onto a flower field, feeling his skin be further abused by the bed of wild roses he’d fallen onto.</p><p>Or- at least he hoped they were roses. The raven felt so lost that he didn’t even know if he’d truly dropped on flowers-</p><p>Weakly, he tried to rise to his hands and knees, but his limbs were shaking and he quickly fell once again.</p><p>Sobbing as the pain of his wounds hit him by the thousands, Merlin tried to at least drag himself, knowing he will never survive the night if he stayed here, he would never see Arthur again-</p><p>The warlock manages just about a bit before his body begins to shut down, the blur in his vision starting to fade into black.</p><p>Before he loses consciousness, Merlin hears the howl and bark of a dog, followed by an echoed shout that sounds like his name-</p><p>All goes dark.</p><hr/><p>Merlin wakes to a screaming match.</p><p>Which is a horrible way to wake up when your head is fucking killing you-</p><p>“-ectly disobeyed my orders to rescue a useless and easily replaceable servant! FOR THE SECOND TIME, ARTHUR-!”</p><p>“I found Merlin while I was out hunting, Father-”</p><p>“HOW STUPID DO YOU BELIEVE ME TO BE?!”</p><p>“I do not-!”</p><p>“A HUNTING TRIP, WHICH YOU CONVENIENTLY WENT ON WHEN I FORBID YOU TO ASSEMBLE A SEARCH PARTY-!”</p><p>“I have no idea what you’re talking about-!”</p><p>“FOR FUCK’S SAKE ARTHUR, YOU TOOK A HUNTING DOG-!”</p><p>“TO HUNT, YES!”</p><p>While trying to keep his moans of pain quiet, Merlin manages to open his eyes by a slit, and once his vision focus for a bit, he sees the King and the Crown Prince having an angry staring contest between them, right next to him.</p><p>“’Rth’r?” he manages to mumble.</p><p>Both Uther and his beloved turn to look at Merlin for a brief moment, and while the King’s eyes had a shining fury to them, Arthur’s looked concerned-</p><p>But they quickly turned into a blank and uninterested stare as soon as Uther turned back to him.</p><p>“You should have left him die” the King hissed as he pointed at the injured warlock, who did his best to try to hide his look of insult.</p><p>Gee, thanks.</p><p>“And I tell you” Arthur said with a monotone voice that Merlin recognized as his ‘I’m seconds away from busting into angry yelling’ tone, “That I happened to find Merlin as I was hunting. I do not recall being raised to abandon an injured man to die”</p><p>“In a battlefield!” Uther said with clear exasperation, “A King does not go rescuing servants!”</p><p>“For the last time, I-!”</p><p>“Found him, yes” the King sneered, turning to the raven with a cold look. Merlin sunk himself onto his bed, trying to look unassuming under the older Pendragon’s gaze.</p><p>“Consider yourself lucky, Marvin”</p><p>“It’s Merlin, my lord” the warlock muttered. He’d been in service for four years, one would think Uther had learned.</p><p>Then again, it was Uther.</p><p>“Same thing, six letters at the end” the King said with dismissal, turning to glare at his son, “We will continue talking about this later”</p><p>They both watch Uther leave in an angry flurry of velvet capes, but Arthur does not glance at the raven until the door smashes to a close by the King.</p><p>The Crown Prince immediately turns to look at Merlin, sapphire eyes bright with unshed tears.</p><p>“Merlin” he brokenly whispers.</p><p>“Arthur” the warlock murmurs back, weakly raising his hands at the same time his lover throws himself at him, engulfing the raven in a tight hug.</p><p>Merlin must have been given a tonic for numbing the pain, for he does not feel his injuries be bothered as he returns the embrace and silent tears begin falling off his eyes; Arthur holds him tenderly, rubbing his hands on his back and lightly carting through his raven locks while being mindful of the bandages around Merlin’s head.</p><p>“How did you find me?” the warlock asks as they briefly separate, staying close by pressing their foreheads together, “I couldn’t use magic to guide you to me”</p><p>“I was tracking you” Arthur revealed in a small voice, gently wiping away Merlin’s stray tears as the raven did the same for him, “I went to look for you when Gaius told me you’ve never came back from picking up herbs, and when I got there I found your satchel abandoned and your neckerchief embedded to a tree- And well, pretty much figured out what happened”</p><p>“And so you came to Camelot, try to gather a small group of Knights to look for me, and Uther prohibited” Merlin guessed.</p><p>The blond nodded, pursing his lips.</p><p>“My father, as you oh so kindly heard, didn’t want to send a rescue party, not even if I gave the excuse that you could have been taken to be tortured for information on Camelot-” he let out a shaky exhale, “So I took Tadhg from the kennels, and I pretended to go hunting, gave the excuse that I wanted to train the new dog-”</p><p>Merlin felt a smile begin to form on his lips.</p><p>“And Uther doesn’t know Tadhg is already well trained” the raven whispered in realization.</p><p>Tadhg had been the runt of the litter, and Arthur had insisted that the dog could be trained just as proficiently like his siblings, and had quickly become the Crown Prince’s favorite hunting dog.</p><p>His lover laughed.</p><p>“Exactly” Arthur confirmed with a smirk, “I took him to the woods, gave him your neckerchief and followed until we were deep into the Darkling Wood where he just- stopped” he said in a faint voice.</p><p>Merlin closed his eyes, mourning the feeling of hopelessness Arthur must have felt when Tadhg didn’t find any trace of himself anymore.</p><p>“And then?”</p><p>“He picked your scent again just as I was about to set up for camp” the blond revealed, cupping the raven’s cheek, his eyes shining with tears, “He began barking as if he gone mad- and I followed him and we found you lying unconscious, all bloody in a clearing and with cold iron cuffs attached to your wrists- I” Arthur gulped, “I thought you were dead, Merlin”</p><p>The warlock kissed him softly, silently saying that he was sorry; sorry for worrying him, sorry for scaring him- and telling his beloved that most importantly, he was alive.</p><p>“How did you escape?” Arthur asked once they broke apart, taking the raven’s hands in a comforting hold.</p><p>By the time Merlin finished explaining, he was assaulted by more kisses on his lips and the rest of his face, the blond whispering reverently sweet words like <em>‘Fy nghariad’ </em>and <em>‘My brave, beautiful, warlock’</em></p><p>“Is this how you react to hearing my barely-survival experience?” Merlin asked with wry amusement as Arthur huffed.</p><p>“No” he replied, kissing him briefly once again, “This is how I react to my lover being completely amazing even in the face of danger” another kiss, “And how I thank him for holding on long enough until I could find him”</p><p>Merlin weakly chuckled, feeling his face heat as he understood the meaning behind his lover’s words.</p><p>“I love you too” he murmured with a soft smile while Arthur pressed a kiss onto his forehead, feeling safe in his hold.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p><em>Fy nghariad</em> = Welsh for 'My love'</p><p>So, I read up on adrenaline, because I, like a fool, thought it meant immediate collapse after the thing was over and wanted to be sure😅- and it turns out it can last for up to 1 hour after a rush.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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